Skip to main content

Pray without ceasing

Earlier this year, during the lead-up to Easter, I received a text from an ex-student from the class of 2021 who had joined the young adult cell I am helping out at, “Me and PT are praying for the cell thing, you’re on my list for tmr! Pls lmk how i can pray for you…” I first bumped into this ex-student when I found her crying near the music room over an audition. Never in a million years could I foresee this happening. In her words, “it’s almost like the roles are swapped.” At that time, I felt richly blessed, and utterly amazed by how God works. 

I did not make much of that incident, except to remark to my wife that it was the second ex-student whom God had sent to surprise me.  Last year, I invited another ex-student whom I taught in 2008 to attend my cell group. I happened to share about the upcoming move to a new school and how uncertain I felt. The ex-student offered to pray for me, and I felt very touched. It was as if God understood caregiver fatigue, and was sending those who were cared for back to care for the carer. Yesterday, after I posted “The Purpose of Movement”, I received a pleasant surprise from this same ex-student who texted to check-in on me. Interestingly, she shared about her prayer life. I saw it as a reminder about my own prayer life, but again, I didn’t make much more of it. 

Then during the final session of the church camp this morning, it hit home. Our speaker, Mrs Lai-Kheng Pousson, spoke about how the most unique part of the Christian faith is that it is a relationship with God. And one important aspect of this relationship is prayer. Prayer is how we communicate with God, and how we invite God to commune with us. Unfortunately, this has been a long-neglected weak area of my spiritual life. More than a blessing for me, more than a reminder of God’s goodness, the encounters with my two ex-students over the past year are also an admonishment for me to start praying more fervently, especially for my students. I discerned two messages from this revelation: 

The first message is regarding my own spiritual life. A spiritual life that is short on prayer is like a relationship based mostly on social media and texts, without the immediacy of phone calls or face-to-face conversations. It can still be genuine, but it is clearly sub-par, and very much akin to a relationship that is on life-support - not dead yet, but certainly not thriving.   

The second message is regarding my ministry with my students. Prayer puts our care and concern into words. It expresses our love in a tangible way. In praying and sharing our prayers with those we are interceding for, we are also inviting them into the relationship we are having with God. Christianity is a relationship with God. It is not theology to be debated, it is not a conviction that one feels. It is a connection that has to be experienced. Only then, does God become real. Only then, can the lost be saved. For salvation happens only when one encounters Jesus, and experiences the love of God.  




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Purpose of Movement

  I’ve been contemplating my decision to move out of Cedar for almost a year. Is this the right timing, and am I going to the right place? A previous negative experience kept gnawing at me every now and then, and I wasn’t completely at peace. It didn’t help that the last half a year at Cedar was absolutely wonderful, leaving me wondering if I should have stayed longer.  God finally spoke to me during church camp. Much as I have been doing well and have been effective where I am, things are becoming “automatic”. Where I used to pray instinctively because I wasn’t entirely sure how to get through to a student, I have been more prone to rely on my experience as a first response, before going to God, if at all. When we are doing well, when we are in our comfort zone, it is easy for God to drop out of the picture, and we risk spiritual stagnation.  In the comfort of the garden of Eden, lacking nothing, Adam and Even fell. In the safety of Pharoah’s court, Moses committed murde...
Post a Comment
Read more

Till we meet again

Lyndon was my Bible Quiz coach when I was a new Christian in 2nd Coy, and laid the foundation for my spiritual life. When he later switched camp to 60th, I took over as 2nd's coach and battled my former mentor. It was friendly rivalry and we would share training materials. The boys probably didn't know about it, but must have wondered why the opponents behaved so similarly. The title fight was mostly just between the two schools every year, and the championship trophy stayed with KKMC, the sponsoring church for both coys, for 7 years.  Lyndon was also the first person who taught me about missions, and equipped me for my first mission trip to the Lahu. Being a blunt young man, I remember asking him why being so qualified, he chose not to be ordained as a pastor, but served as a Lay Ministry staff in church. He humbly replied that it was his calling to do so. And I soon understood why as I witnessed his gift in missions planning, equipping and keeping in touch with t...
Post a Comment
Read more